A number of media playback systems use continuous media streams, such as video image streams, to output media content. However, some continuous media streams in their raw form often require high transmission rates, or bandwidth, for effective and/or timely transmission. In many cases, the cost and/or effort of providing the required transmission rate is prohibitive. This transmission rate problem is often solved by compression schemes that take advantage of the continuity in content to create highly packed data. Compression methods such Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) methods and its variants for video are well known in the art. MPEG and similar variants use motion estimation of blocks of images between frames to perform this compression. With extremely high resolutions, such as the resolution of 1920×1080i used in high definition television (HDTV), the data transmission rate of such a video image stream will be very high even after compression.
One problem posed by such a high data transmission rate is data storage. Recording or saving high resolution video image streams for any reasonable length of time requires considerably large amounts of storage that can be prohibitively expensive. Another problem presented by a high data transmission rate is that many output devices are incapable of handling the transmission. For example, display systems that can be used to view video image streams having a lower resolution may not be capable of displaying such a high resolution. Yet another problem is the limitations on continuous media streaming in systems with a fixed bandwidth or capacity. For example, in a local area network with multiple receiving/output devices, such a network will often have a fixed bandwidth or capacity, and hence be physically and/or logistically incapable of simultaneously supporting multiple receiving/output devices.
Given the limitations, as discussed, it is apparent that a method and/or system that overcome at least some of these limitations would be advantageous.